The post Team Brunel on a charge with Leg 9 win appeared first on All At Sea.

Leg 9, from Newport to Cardiff, day 01 on board Turn the Tide on Plastic. Dee Caffari driving. 20 May, 2018.
Martin Keruzore/Volvo Ocean Race

The top three teams in the Volvo Ocean Race are within three points after Bouwe Bekking’s Team Brunel won Leg 9 into Cardiff to vault into contention for the overall race win.

To earn the leg win, Bekking had to fend off fellow Dutch skipper Simeon Tienpont’s team AkzoNobel, who had held a nominal lead of a few hundred metres just hours before the finish.

But in the strong currents and light winds of the Bristol Channel, Bekking and his crew found a way to claw back in front and then protected over the final miles to take the win by just 4 minutes and 05 seconds over team AkzoNobel.

The Leg 9 results also mean a new team is at the top of the race leaderboard as Dongfeng Race Team, with a third place finish, take overall race honours by just a single point over MAPFRE, who settled for a disappointing fifth place finish on the transatlantic leg.

With the win, Bekking’s Brunel is just three points off the lead, meaning the final two European legs will be more important than ever.

Since the team hit a low point at the conclusion of Leg 6 after arriving in Auckland with a sixth place finish, Bekking and crew have posted a 1-2-1 scoreline, including important wins on the final two double-point scoring legs, to move from also-ran status on the leaderboard to holding down a firm grip on a podium position with an eye on the top spot.

For Tienpont’s AkzoNobel, Leg 9 will be long remembered for the amazing record-breaking effort the team made in setting a new standard for 24-hour distance run in the Volvo Ocean Race.

AkzoNobel obliterated the previous race record set in a Volvo Ocean 70 by Ericsson 4 in 2008. The new mark is a 602.51 nautical mile, 24-hour run.

“This was an incredible race,” Tienpont said from on board at the finish line. “I am unbelievably proud of the crew. We kept pushing all the way to the finish line and we are happy with second place.

British sailing hero Dee Caffari, the skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic, led her team to a sixth place finish.

The team received a heroes’ welcome, despite a disappointing sixth place finish in the transatlantic race, and skipper Caffari found some bright spots to celebrate once the team was dockside.

“We had some of the best sailing the guys have done the entire race so they were buzzing,” Caffari said, referencing the record-breaking conditions mid-leg that saw some of the highest 24-hour runs in the history of the race.

“They have all now circumnavigated the globe and none of them had done that when we left. We have crossed our track from Leg 0, they’ve all gone round the world and I’m really proud of them.”

For Dee, this race marks her fifth time around the world, including three non-stop circumnavigations.

In addition to Caffari, the rookies on board Turn the Tide on Plastic can profit from the experience of another one of Britain’s most accomplished offshore sailors.

Navigator Brian Thompson became the first Briton to set the Round the World record twice and to sail non-stop around the world four times. He says he thinks the team has the ability and drive to earn a podium position on one of the remaining two legs.

“We’ve been so close on several occasions, Thompson said. “If you had taken the halfway point on some of the legs we’d have been on the podium or in the lead,” he noted.

“But I think we need a little bit of good fortune. We’re all getting better every leg… we’ve really learned how to sail the boat and we’re all getting more experience. So I think in the nice tactical close racing we can hold our own with everyone, so we’re looking forward to the last couple of legs.”